A Telltale Warning
by Rusty And The Rubix Horse
Summary: My first ever Original Character fiction! Muggle-born Charity Riker has a difficult time adjusting when she is admitted into Hogwarts and it only gets worse when she meets Severus Snape...SSOC
1. First Impressions Aren't Always The Best

Charity Riker sat alone in her section of the Hogwarts Express train, staring out the window. She was the child of Emera and Saber Riker, two muggles who had no previous knowledge of the wizarding world. She was seventeen years old when she had recieved her letter of acceptance into Hogwarts and had thrown it away in belief that it was nothing more than a hoax. Only when she had recieved it a second time mere minutes later, did she show it to her parents.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," she muttered to herself, tearing her gaze away from the window. Because of her age, she was expected to take seventh year classes and know seventh year material. This she was not fond of. What if she couldn't perform any of the spells she was asked to perform? What if she was shunned because she wasn't the same? What if she got terrible grades? Her parents would surely ground her for that.

Oh, how she wished she could have just gone back to her regular boarding school!

The train screeched to a halt about a half-hour later. The students began filing off of the train, looking both nappy, bothered and scared. She noticed that the younger students seemed to be the most nervous. Possibly because they were new as well. Thinking of this, she followed them.

"Firs' years, this way!" came a booming voice to her right. She whipped around to see an enormous man with scraggly looking dark hair that blended into his beard. She didn't know whether she should continue to follow the first years or not. Just as she decided to go with the older students, a woman's voice called her name.

"Charity Riker!" she called, looking through the crowd. Charity stopped moving when she reached her. She was an older woman and she wore a tall, pointed hat with her hair pulled into a tight bun. Once the initial shock wore off(which was rather quickly), she shook her head and nodded to signal that she was Charity Riker.

"Ah, Miss Riker," the woman said with a kind smile. "So wonderful to finally see you here at Hogwarts! I am Professor McGonagall--now, if you would be so kind as to follow me, we will get you sorted into your House in no time." She smiled again and ushered Charity away from the rest of the students. They reached two very large doors and entered the castle.

"M-my luggage-" Charity stammered when she saw a bunch of trunks stacked up against the wall.

"Don't worry dear," Professor McGonagall cut in. "Your luggage will be transported to your rooms once we get you Sorted." Charity nodded slightly and followed the witch into a small office. Three other people were there. One was a man with an incredibly long, silver beard and a pointed hat, another had short brown hair with flecks of gray in it(making him look much older than she presumed him to be) and the third was a man who had jet black shoulder length hair with very dark eyes and long black robes.

"Miss Riker!" greeted the man with the beard cheerfully. "Professor Dumbledore-Headmaster of Hogwarts." He smiled and shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you," she replied with a faint smile. She caught the dark haired man out of the corner of her eyes. He looked rather annoyed.

"This is Professor Lupin and Professor Snape," continued Dumbledore happily. The man with the brown hair gave her a bright smile, whilst the other simply nodded in acknowledgment. "If you will please take a seat on this stool-" He gestured to a stool to her left. She did as she was asked. Professor McGonagall appeared beside her, holding a battered brown hat in her hand. She set it on Charity's head and explained that it would sort her into the correct House.

She figited with her hands nervously and nearly fell off the stool when the hat spoke.

"A newcomer I see," it began in a raspy voice. "Muggle-born eh? Difficult to place because of your age...plenty of courage I see, though hidden well...stubborness will always be good in Slytherin-but-no. Stunning collection on novels of the Muggle world-you'd do well in Ravenclaw with that. Yet, very dedicated to your studies, determination and yet more courage...Hufflepuff, _possibly_...Gryffindor most likely. Yet I feel compelled to place you...no-you're not a pure-blood...Not Ravenclaw...forgive my actions but...SLYTHERIN!" The last word made Charity start again. She saw Professor Snape's eyes widen slightly at the hat's placing.

Professor McGonagall removed the hat immediately. As she looked around the tiny office, she noticed that none of the Professors seemed as cheerful anymore. With the exception of Snape, but one would not have called his actions 'cheerful'. Dumbledore spoke quietly to him and then turned to Charity.

"Since you have been sorted into Slytherin House, you will go with Professor Snape to find your dormitory. You will find that your luggage is already there. Once you are finished discussing arrangements for your training sessions, you may return to the Great Hall for the Beginning of Term feast." Charity looked at him in slight confusion, but he simply smiled dully and left. Professor McGonagall and Professor Lupin did the same, though before he left, Lupin glanced back at her with disappointment in his eyes.

She sensed someone near her and turned her head slightly to see Snape standing nearer to her, gesturing with his hand to follow him. He swept out of the office and Charity followed obediantly, though she had a difficult time keeping up.


	2. The Slytherin Way

Professor Snape led Charity through the corridors in silence. Only when they reached the entrance to the Slytherin Common room did he speak.

"You will need a password to enter the Common room," he told her without looking at her. "Slythae Ingardia," he said. Without warning, the grey stone wall split open to reveal a wooden door. "Imperius." The wooden door swung open and he led Charity into a room full of brilliant green statues and cloth. She continued to follow him toward another doorway and when they reached it, he drew his wand from his robes and traced a serpentine type line along the wall. Once again, the stones parted to reveal a large office, filled with shelves upon shelves of jars.

He muttered something and flicked his wand as they walked by the fireplace, causing a fire to magically appear. Skeletal candles lit as he walked past. He led her to his desk and motioned for her to sit in the chair before it, whilst he took the seat behind the desk.

Charity took her seat nervously and it was quite sudden when he caught her eye.

"I must admit Miss Riker, I was utterly shocked when the Sorting Hat pronounced you fit for Slytherin House," he began. She didn't reply. "Seeing as you are to take seventh year classes, the Headmaster feels it neccessary for you to recieve extra lessons to cover what you have missed. Of course, it is by choice that you take these lessons. If you do not wish to do so-"

"I will do whatever is expected of me, sir," Charity cut in, her face expressionless. Snape's eyes narrowed briefly, for he was not accustomed to being interrupted.

"Please refrain from speaking until I have finished, Miss Riker," he said sternly, releasing her gaze. "That is my first rule."

"I apologize, sir."

Severus chose to ignore this statement.

"Now," he began again, with a stern voice. "Being as you are in my house, you will obey my rules and respect all that I and others may ask of you. Slytherin House is known for being the house of pure-blooded witches and wizards-which you are not."

"I am aware of that, sir."

"I suspected you might be," Snape spat back sarcastically. "I notice that you have obviously already been subjected to calling your elders by 'sir' or perhaps 'ma'am', for which I am grateful. Far too many of my students refer to me as 'Professor' on a regular basis. This I don't mind, so long as it is not constant; though for many students, it is. As I was saying before, because Slytherin House is known for being home to pure-blooded students and you are in fact Muggle-born, you may find that you are looked down upon by your housemates." He tried to catch her eye, but she looked away.

"Just as I feared," she muttered.

"You cannot fear in Slytherin, Miss Riker."

She looked up at him quickly. "Everyone fears, sir. Including you and your Slytherins."

He stood up and walked around his desk to stand beside her chair.

"_You_ are my Slytherin, Miss Riker," he whispered in her ear as he leaned down. "You mustn't forget that."

"I belong to no one." She said this more sharply than she had intended, causing Severus to give her an icy glare.

"Thus I have seen the first sign that you may fit into my house," he replied, moving away.

She returned the glare as he said this. "I had no desire to be placed in your house. When I read about this school, I learned that Slytherin is more often than not, the house from which dark witches and wizards emerge. I felt myself a Ravenclaw."

He snorted in response to this proclaimation.

"Well, you must have felt wrong! Now, do you desire to find your sleeping quarters, Miss Riker. You are, after all, a Slytherin."

He stepped back and made a sweeping movement with his hands, signalling that she should go before him. Charity stood up and left the office to find the common room still empty.

"The girl's dormitories are to your left, Miss Riker," Snape called from his office, a slight sneer in his voice. "You will find your possessions in one of those rooms."


	3. Strange Happenings and Suspiscions

Charity never went down to the feast. After Severus had discussed her extra lessons with her, she was exhausted. Too much had happened in one day. Dumbledore had noticed that she had not been at the feast. Lupin had noticed as well. Severus had also refrained from going, simply because he got the feeling that his newest Slytherin did not desire complete solitude. Though the two had not actually been in the same room, the knowledge that there was another in the dungeons was enough for the young Slytherin girl. She had spent the evening reading a romance novel in front of the fire.

Eventually, she had fallen asleep in her chair. Severus had gone to speak with the Headmaster and Remus Lupin about her classes and had seen her. Something inside him softened a bit when he laid eyes upon her sleeping form. Her long blonde hair cascaded over her neck and shoulders like a golden waterfall and her blue eyeshadow sparkled innocently at him. Her emerald seamed robes clashed magnificently with her slightly pale complexion. He would have moved her to her room, except for the fact that he didn't know which one it was. Not to mention the fact of how that would have looked.

* * *

The next morning, Charity opened her eyes to find her book flat open on her face. She sat up, her whole body aching from staying in one position all night, and threw the book on the floor.

"It's about time you woke up," said a voice nearby. She jumped slightly and looked around. On the couch next to her sat a blonde haired boy. He was sipping at a cup of coffee. "Damn stuff tastes horrid," he mumbled.

"Then why do you drink it?" she asked in only slight annoyance.

He grinned and took the cup down from his lips. "What else is going to keep me awake for the day?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Draco Malfoy," he said, standing up and reaching his hand toward her.

She looked at it for a moment before taking it. He pulled her to her feet.

"Charity Riker," she replied with a faint smile.

"Ah. The new girl right?" He released her hand.

She nodded.

"I thought you were a Muggle-born though?"

"I am." Seeing his face, she added, "Don't ask how I wound up in Slytherin. I honestly don't know myself."

He was silent as he took another sip of his coffee. When he had swallowed, he spoke again.

"What class do you have first?" he inquired. She glared at him.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," she replied. "But I'm not going. Because I'm in seventh year and have never cast a spell in my life, I'm getting extra lessons."

"Who's teaching you?" Draco asked curiously.

"I believe Professor Lupin."

"But he teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"I know-someone's filling in for him I guess."

Draco looked at her suspiciously for a moment, but finally nodded. "Well, I suppose I should get going," he said, sighing in exaggerated fatigue. He nodded curtly to her and left the room. Charity, on the other hand, snatched her water bottle from beside her chair, ran a brush through her hair and pulled it into a ponytail and then also left. She searched until she found a door with Professor R. J. Lupin written on it. She knocked twice. The door opened after a moment.

"Hello Miss Riker," Remus greeted. He smiled warmly at her.

"Hello Professor Lupin." He ushered her into the medium sized office.

Remus stood before her as she sat down in a chair.

"I have been instructed to teach you basic spells today, and _only_ basic spells," he began, looking at her. She looked different than the day before, mostly because her hair was in a ponytail. "I trust you have brought your wand?"

She nodded and removed it from it's casing.

He reached his hand out toward it. "If I may...?"

She handed it to him. After a moment of examining it, he nodded in what appeared to be satisfaction, though his eyes narrowed in what was unmistakably confusion.

"What is it sir?" she asked curiously.

"It's just...odd-that you would have the brother wand of one of Hogwarts' most famous students. Two of them actually," Remus replied, sitting down in the chair opposite her.

"Who?"

"Harry Potter-and-Lord Voldemort."

Charity shuddered. Something in his voice gave her the chills. It took her a moment to notice that he was watching her intently. She immediately shook her head and said, "Are we going to start or what Professor?"

"Do you know who Lord Voldemort is?"

She shook her head but shuddered again.

After studying her for a moment longer, he sighed. "Probably best that you didn't know," he said softly.

"No-I-I want to know." Charity looked directly into his blue-brown eyes.

"As I said before, it is best that you _didn't_ know."

"Then why did you ask me?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Do not push me, Miss Riker. You will regret it."

She inhaled sharply at this statement. "Fine," she breathed. "Then please, let's start sir."

Remus nodded and began going over simple wrist movements and charms.

* * *

That evening, Charity was feeling much more confident in her work. She had mastered everything Remus has showed her in a very short amount of time. At lunch, she had been joined by Draco, whom was the only student she would talk to at the moment. She was sitting in the same chair, reading her book when Draco came in. He sat down at the couch and sighed.

"Only this year and I'm out of this place!" he exclaimed halfheartedly.

"Wonderful Draco," she replied sarcastically.

"Why are you always so negative? It's like you hate me or something."

She put her book down and turned to face him. "I don't hate you Draco Malfoy...I just hate it when people ask me that question."

"Ah." He shook his head and got up to leave. "Goodnight Charity."

Charity watched him leave and then continued reading her book. After a while, she again fell asleep in the chair.

* * *

Severus Snape walked towards the dungeons late that night. When he came into the Slytherin common room, he saw that once again, Charity was asleep in her chair. He shook his head. He noticed the book on the floor and picked it up. It was called _You Belong To Me_, by Mary Higgins Clark. How absurd that she was reading a book with that title when she had specifically told him she belonged to no one. She shifted her position suddenly and he started slightly. He set the book back in its place and started to walk away. But something stopped him. He wasn't sure what compelled him to do it, but he conjured up a heavy blanket and lay it down upon his student gently.

He heard her breathe in sharply as the blanket touched her skin. He froze, standing in an almost unnatural stillness and only when he heard her exhale did he leave the common room.

* * *

"What am I doing?" Severus muttered to himself the next morning in his office. "I cannot allow her to sleep in the common room any longer...yet I do!" He was arguing with himself over Charity's-ways. Even though he had only known her for two days, he had already noticed that whenever he saw her, something inside him lurched in an aggrivating way. _Why?_ That was the only question he could ask himself. Why had he felt the need to cover her with the blanket the night before? Why had her placing into Slytherin shocked, yet pleased him so? And why the hell was she affecting him this way? He slammed his fist down onto the coffee table in front of him, causing his hot tea to splash onto his face.

"Damn!" he spat, rushing to find a wet cloth to wipe the boiling liquid from his face. After he had calmed down a considerable amount, Severus left the office for the Great Hall. He saw that Charity was still sleeping. After a moment of thinking and arguing with his conscience(which had won), he moved toward the chair and tried to wake her.

"Miss Riker!" he said in a loud whisper, trying not to alert any others in the dungeons of his actions. When she failed to awake, he hesitantly gripped her shoulder and shook her gently.

"GET AWAY!" she screamed suddenly, sitting bolt upright, eyes widened and breathing hard. Severus practically leapt backwards in alarm.

'That is the second time this child has caught me off guard,' he thought bitterly. He wasn't usually jumpy.

"I apologize if I may have frightened you, Miss Riker," Severus said coolly, quickly regaining his composure.

Her eyes were still slightly widened, but it was clear she was back on earth.

"Oh-you didn't frighten me sir...you just-startled me," she said, shaking her head vigorously.

"I see. The reason I chose to wake you Miss Riker, is because I feel that you must eat some breakfast. I have only seen you in the Great Hall once in the small amount of time I have known you." He waited for her reply.

"You should have let me sleep, sir. I never eat in the morning."

His dark eyes bore into hers.

"Then it is time for you to change your routine, Miss Riker."

"Why?"

He knelt down so his eyes were level with her own.

"Do you remember, Miss Riker, what the rules I described to you previously are?" He paused in waiting for an answer.

She said nothing.

"You will do whatever it is that I ask of you, as well as what others may ask as well."

"What are you playing at?" she shot suspisciously.

"I assure you Miss Riker, I am 'playing' at nothing. I am simply stating that you come down to the Great Hall to eat your breakfast." He nodded in closing and waited for her to get up from the couch and preceed him to the Great Hall.


	4. Breakfast in the Great Hall

Disclaimer: Whish I owned it, but unfortunately, I'll never be that fortunate.

Sorry about the loooooooong wait, everyone--this is just a short update, but at least it's something--I've been really busy, between moving, switching schools, homework, and doing everything my mom can't do with a broken leg...it's a bit hectic in my little world here--but here you go--hope you enjoy!

* * *

Once Severus had managed to get Charity into the Great Hall for breakfast, he left her for the staff table at the front of the hall. Charity tried to find a seat at the Slytherin table, and was nearing the end of it, sighing in frustration, when someone pulled her down into a chair. It was Draco Malfoy.

"Don't look so happy to see me," he told her sarcastically when she glared at him. "You need a friend."

"I need no one," she spat back in aggrivation, but in reality, she was very happy she at least could talk to someone. She turned around so that she was facing the table, and waited for Draco to finish filling his plate, before passing the food on to her. There was a huge bowl of scrambled eggs, all the bacon she could ever want, french toast with sweet, thick, sugary syrup, extremely fluffy and buttery pancakes, along with cornbread, blueberry muffins, apples, oranges and much to her surprise, a giant bowl of Fruit Pebbles.

She took a spoonful of eggs, a pancake and some cornbread, and passed everything onto the next person.

"That's all you're eating?" Draco asked, his mouth full of french toast, and a dribble of maple syrup came from the corner of his mouth. He stabbed his fork into his own cornbread and stuffed it into his mouth with a grin.

Charity glanced up at the staff table. Dumbledore was talking to Professor McGonagall cheerfully, whilest Lupin sat beside her, completely focused on cutting his bacon into little tiny bitesize pieces. Snape was sitting upright, glaring sourly aroung the room, and when he looked her way, she snatched a few muffins from Draco's plate and bit into one of them quickly.

"No, it's not," she told him, giving him an impish smile.

"Thief," he grumbled, and then continued tearing his cornbread apart.

"So you're the new girl, huh?" came a girl's voice from behind Charity. She turned in her seat to see a tall girl with black hair. Draco introduced her as Pansy Parkinson. "I've heard about you. You're the Muggle-Born."

Charity nodded. She still wasn't real familiar with the terms of the wizarding world, but she was getting better.

"How _did_ you manage to get put in Slytherin?" Pansy asked her, sitting down in the seat next to her, who's occupant had just gotten up. "You're the first Muggle-Born to be placed in here in...in..."

"There's _never_ been a Muggle-Born in Slytherin before you numbskull," Draco piped in.

"You know, I keep asking myself the same question," Charity told them both with a shrug. "The Sorting Hat told me I'd be good in all four of the houses--it said 'forgive my actions' when it placed me."

"Damn--Probably was thinking of how well you'd cope with Snape. He's not the most joyous person in the world, in case you hadn't noticed," Pansy told her with a nod toward the staff table.

Charity was surprised to hear herself chuckle ever so slightly.

"Oh, I've noticed all right," she replied with a frown. "Hey Draco--you didn't give me a blanket the other night, did you?"

Draco looked at her like she was insane.

"I'm not _that_ much of a friend yet!"

"No--I was just wondering--because I went to bed without one, and woke up with one. I slept in the common room, so I suppose it could have been anybody..."

"You know," Pansy said thoughtfully. "I heard Snape arguing with himself about you in the halls real early this morning. He said something about a blanket."

Charity gave her a deadly glare.

"Are you implying that Mr. The-World-Has-Come-To-An-End gave me that blanket?" she inquired in a disbelieving tone.

Pansy shrugged.

"Dunno for sure, but hey, he has to go through the common room to get to his quarters, dosn't he?"

Charity opened her mouth to talk back, but Draco interrupted, bursting into hysterics. The two girls(and several others), looked at him blankly.

"Snape--being nice--that's hard to even _imagine_!" he said through his laughter. Only when Snape appeared behind them, did his laughter cease.

"Just what do you find so funny, Mr. Malfoy?" Severus asked him, with a glare similar to Charity's. Both Pansy and Draco couldn't help but notice the similarity. When Draco offered no explanation, Severus turned to Charity.

"Miss Riker, if you would please accompany me--Professor Lupin would like to begin your lessons, and wishes for you to be escorted to his office." Charity nodded and got up to follow him.

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